1 to accuse someone officially:
The police have decided not to prefer charges against them because of insufficient evidence.
Some people prefer a vegetarian diet, while others prefer a meat-based diet.
Most convalescents prefer to be cared for at home rather than in a hospital.
Surely, early generative phonology in the 1970s provided evidence for preferring deletion to insertion rules for the sake of generality.
Researchers, for instance, can help shape results by anticipating preferred outcomes and subtly providing conditions that favor their development.
The cane-cutters preferred the twelve-month cane; the 24-month cane was reported to be harder to cut, had lodged and was infested with weeds.
